Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Amira Hass: Two lobbies defend the oppression - Haaretz

One of the world's best reasons for not being an anti-Semite is Amira Hass. DS

(...) For six years now, we have been hearing that the Israel Defense Forces' attacks have racked up important gains in damaging the terror infrastructure, killing and arresting terrorists and confiscating arms caches. At first, these achievements were against youngsters throwing stones, then against people throwing Molotov cocktails and gunmen shooting at roads in the West Bank, and later against suicide bombers. At first, homemade rifles were seized; later, the number of regular rifles that were seized increased. The more they are confiscated, the more they proliferate.

In Gaza, before the Qassams, the gains were against people who infiltrated the settlements or who placed explosivesbeneath tank treads. Now, three or four years later, the gains are always against the rocket-launching teams. Once, their range was short, amateurish. Now, so say the experts, their range is expanding constantly. Our army, meanwhile, continues to rack up victories. It threatens new assaults, and in Gaza, Hamas gains in status. After all, it is their militants who headed into battles against the enormous Israeli force that had invaded Beit Hanun - battles that were lost before they began, but were nevertheless heroic, in their eyes.

Is it possible that the army and the politicians commanding it can't see the fearful symmetry between the deepening Israeli military oppression and the ongoing Palestinian arms buildup? Between the oppression and Palestinians' support for that arms buildup, however backward and meager, compared with Israel's might? Or is that exactly what the Israeli government wants, with or without Avigdor Lieberman - to perpetuate the military conflict and bolster the Palestinian military lobby, in order to repel any chance for a political solution? READ ALL